Not having grown up in the States, and with only a one year's course in American history at a community college, I was extremely interested in the aspect of the slavery situation. I too hadn't realized that the Civil War was of such vital interest internationally, and that so many countries were siding with the South, because their
economies depended upon the continuation of the slave trade and that work force. Britain had abolished the slave trade in 1807 and British colonies had followed suit in 1833, yet the acceptance of what was happening
elsewhere seemed to be regarded as an inevitable necessity. This was an extremely interesting part of this novel---that and the fact that I'd been concerned about its possibly being just "a guy book"!